Elé Salif Howell, drums, leads a fantastic quartet of young phenoms through two sets of jazz music —  Kazemde George, saxophone; Kai Lyons, guitar; Giulio Xavier Cetto, bass. $25 cover charge / byob.

Elé synthesizes the multirhythms of Tony Williams, the power and drive of Elvin Jones, and the intuitive complexity of African drumming, and has for several years travelled in the band of Ravi Coltrane and more recently that of Chief Adjuah (formerly known as Christian Scott), two saxophonists of international stature.

Elé has known and played with Kazemde George since both were Oakland kids being schooled in jazz and musicianship after the bell at the Oakland Jazz Workshops, now celebrating 30 years teaching talented youth eager to learn with a capacity for great art. OJW is an organization of the sort that makes the Bay Area revered for its cultural depth and transmission. Many of your favorite Bay Area jazz players have been prepared for the profession by elders in the community and in the public and private schools as well as places like OJW,  the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music and the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts.

Kai Lyons, who grew up on the San Francisco side of the bay, is a phenomenal guitarist and a natural musicologist with an encyclopedic grasp of the world traditions that underlie American Jazz. 

Giulio Xavier Cetto grew up in the Central Valley and is a key bassist barely contained by the jazz label, though he’s know as the Jazz Thug for his total engagement in what goes down on the bandstand.

You’re in for a fine and exciting night of music at Bird & Beckett on this Monday evening before the Thanksgiving holiday gets fully underway. Come share the music with us.